As information network is constructed and efficiently managed, any network user can access the network to communicate and exchange information with other users. There are diverse important devices in the network. Ethernet switches are a category of important devices in communication network and provide line-speed forwarding function for a variety of Ethernet interfaces and accomplish data transmission and exchange in an internal network or an external network.
Referring to FIG. 1A, there is a top view of internal composition of an Ethernet switch, with the chassis cover removed. The Ethernet switch includes: chassis 1 (chassis cover removed), mainboard 2, power supply unit 3, and radiator fan 6 in the chassis. Connectors on mainboard 2 protrude from the openings on the front of the chassis. Wherein, the connectors include network port connector 4 (electrical port) and/or optical port connector 5 coupling with a higher speed link. Typically, the network port connector 4 usually serves as internal network switch ports in a LAN with lower speed, such as 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps, or up to 1,000 Mbps. As shown in FIG. 1A, there are 24 such internal network switch ports; in addition, the number of internal network switch ports can be increased to 48 by adding connectors, depending on the space in the chassis. The optical port connector 5 coupling with a higher speed link is usually used as an external network port for data transmission and exchange between the LANs and other networks or core networks. Since the optical port connector 5 providing an external transmission channel for the local network, the optical ports are usually high in speed and fewer in number. As shown in FIG. 1A, there are only four optical port connectors 5. A front view of the internal network ports (in lower speed) and external network ports (in higher speed) of an traditional Ethernet switch is shown in FIG. 1B. However, for traditional Ethernet switches, those external network ports cannot meet the demand of some users; for example, some users require 10 Gbps or above switch ports; however, the traditional Ethernet switch only support one type of external network port, i.e., optical port or high-speed network port.
It is seen from above analysis that the openings provided on the chassis of any traditional Ethernet switch can only match one type of external network port but cannot match external network ports in different physical packages or operated in different speeds. Therefore, the traditional Ethernet switches are simple in structure and can only provide data transmission at 10 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps transmission speed. Such a structure cannot flexibly support transmission speeds above 1,000 Mbps. At present, the Ethernet switch can provide up to 48 internal network switch ports and 2-4 external network ports in fixed speed or fixed physical package. Since the external network switch interfaces are in un-flexible forms at present, the switch device (e.g., Ethernet switch) has only one form of external network interface, i.e., optical port or high-speed network port in a single form. The optical port or high-speed network port cannot provide effective support and flexible configuration capability, specially for a variety of emerging 10 Gbps optical module interfaces.